Micro-electromechanical devices are becoming increasingly popular and normally involve the creation of devices on the micron scale utilizing semi-conductor fabrication techniques. For a review on micro-electromechanical devices, reference is made to the article “The Broad Sweep of Integrated Micro Systems” by S. Tom Picraux and Paul J. McWhorter published December 1998 in IEEE Spectrum at pages 24 to 33.
One form of micro-electromechanical device is an ink jet printing device in which ink is ejected from an ink ejection nozzle chamber.
Many different techniques on ink jet printing and associated devices have been invented. For a survey of the field, reference is made to an article by J Moore, “Non-Impact Printing: Introduction and Historical Perspective”, Output Hard Copy Devices, Editors R Dubeck and S Sherr, pages 207 to 220 (1988).
Recently, a new form of ink jet printing has been developed by the present applicant that uses micro-electromechanical technology. In one form, ink is ejected from an ink ejection nozzle chamber utilizing an electromechanical actuator connected to a paddle or plunger which moves towards the ejection nozzle of the chamber for ejection of drops of ink from the ejection nozzle chamber.
The present invention concerns, but is not limited to, an integrated circuit device that incorporates improvements to an electromechanical bend actuator for use with the technology developed by the Applicant.
Definitions
In this specification, the phrase “electrothermal actuator” is to be understood as an actuator that is capable of displacement upon heating. Such actuators generally use differential thermal expansion to generate movement. For example, such an actuator may incorporate a heating circuit that is positioned such that heating and subsequent expansion of the heating circuit and a region about the heating circuit results in deformation of the actuator. If the actuator is anchored to a substrate, the deformation results in movement of the actuator. The movement is harnessed to perform work.